How to Scan a Small Black & White Image From a Contact Sheet
- 1). Clean your scanner. Since scanning a photograph, particularly a small file, does not result in the best clarity or resolution as say a digitally produced photograph, it is crucial for the scanner bed to be as clean as possible to allow for a crisp read. Clean the glass with a soft cloth and glass cleaner. Place the contact sheet image-side down on top of the glass.
- 2). Turn on the scanner and open the scanning program on your computer. Select "black and white" or "grayscale" in the scanner setup program and set the scanning resolution to 300 dpi. Since all scanners and programs are different, the location of settings will vary. Refer to the user's guide of your particular model if in doubt.
- 3). Crop the image before scanning if possible. Some scanner models allow for you to crop before scanning; if your scanner does not possess this feature, you must crop afterward using a photo editing software. To crop before printing, press "scan preview" or "preview" and the scanner will make a quick low-resolution scan so you can locate the desired image and crop it. Select the "cropping" or "selection" tool and select the frame you wish to isolate. Once selected press crop and "scan." If your scanner does not have a cropping option, simply scan the entire contact sheet.
- 4). Save the file in an appropriate location. Create a new folder to save the scanned image or place it in your "My Pictures" folder. If you did not crop the image using the scanner feature, open the saved contact sheet with a photo editing program such as Adobe Photoshop.
- 5). Crop the photo using a photo editing program. Using the "selection" tool, select the photo frame you wish to isolate. Once selected, crop the image by accessing the "Image" tab on the tool bar and select "crop." Save the cropped image in same folder as the full contact sheet or continue with editing.
